Friday, December 30, 2011

Well we made it to the U.S. Just fine. I am sitting in my parents kitchen in Waunakee, Wisconsin as I type this blog entry.

Big thanks to our good friend Jeff Koren who gave us great advice on how to handle the pitfalls of US Customs and Immigration . He said I should go through the "visitor " line at passport control with Eric and that way we went through passport control together. Sure enough, we breezed right through!

Got in last Friday and had a wonderful Christmas with my Parents and my Sister and her family , who also flew out from California. There even was a light dusting of snow still on the ground here , so we ended up having a White Christmas after all.

We then had a fantastic celebration for my Parents 50th Wedding Anniversary on December 27th. There was a special church service where they reaffirmed their wedding vows, which was followed by a dinner and party with over 60 friends and family .

We are here through New Year's and will fly back to London on Monday. It is always surprising how fast the time goes by. There is never enough time to see all the people you want to see, and who want to see you. So to folks who we were unable to connect with this trip, our apologies, but there was just too much going on and too little time.

It is always great to get back to Madison. I grew up here so it is always "coming home": for me. Showing Eric around the UW Madison campus you find yourself awash in memories.

Yet as is always the case, you tend to notice the changes more than the things that have stayed the same . Which is interesting, because it tends to be little things that change.

One of my favorite stores on State Street; (The Puzzlebox) is no longer there, yet State Street Brats remains as a constant. A firewall against a tide of changes that might wipe away all Madison traditions.

Lots of people have asked us, if living in London is "all that different" compared to here. And the answer is obviously, yes. It is very different. Yet at the same time it is not so different. It is the paradox of how do you define "home". Where you grew up will always be home, in the sense it is where you come from. Yet home is far more a matter of where your life is. This will always be where I am "from", but it is no longer where my life is.

There have been some wonderful moments this trip. One of the most amazing has been introducing Eric to one of my oldest friends.

Some long time readers of this blog may recall one of my first entries was about my dilemma over reconnecting with my friend after being out of touch for many years. As has been so often the case in my life, I am very lucky to have friends who are far braver and much wiser than I am.

No politics in this posting, sorry. But have no fear, I will have much to say about the nuttiness of the Iowa GOP Caucus next week. The near collapse of the Euro, the Mayans predicting 2012 as the end of the world, and of course random thoughts on Doctor Who....

Monday, December 19, 2011

There has been various reactions to the news that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has shuffled off his mortal coil. The North Korean Central News Agency announced the news with one of their customary over the top performances.

The issues that arise from the transition of power in North Korea are clearly very serious, given the spectre of political instability in an insular, paranoid nation that possesses an atomic weapon. The issue of instability in the North is always a troubling one for South Korea. The idea that the Korean Peninsula will someday reunify, is one South Koreans hope for, yet in practice the idea of the border between North and South coming down, is a problematic one for South Korea.

North Korea is for all intents and purposes a sealed bubble. The image of the Korean Peninsula taken from the International Space Station tells the story. You see the vast web of lights that outline South Korea, and the pitch dark outline of the North with one pinprick of light being the Capital Pyongyang. North Korea exists with the vast majority of its population knowing only what they have been told by the Government.

Now imagine for a moment, waking up one day and finding out that everything you have ever been told, taught or believed about the world was in fact, completely wrong. Now times that by twelve million people, and you see the dilemma reunification poses for the South. Unlike with Germany, Korean reunification would create a refugee crisis on a biblical scale, almost over night.

I remember my first visit to the border area between the two Koreas (the "DMZ") . It was in 1997. It was , as you might imagine, a unique experience. It remains essentially the last remaining front of the Cold War. It will be fascinating to watch the transition of Power there. Kim's appointed successor is his third son Kim Jon Eun, who is in his twenties, but was recently made a four star General in the North Korean military.

It is in everyone's interest that the two Koreas reconcile peacefully. The late Kim Jong il was nothing if not unique. His flamboyant personal style and odd personality traits made him an easy target for comedy. The greatest example of course, being "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who used Kim as central villian for their movie "Team America - World Police". Giving the "dear leader" his own moment in cinematic history, and a song to go with it.

So we bid farewell to the "dear leader" with a look back at his moment of movie musical glory.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

It has not been a good week if you are a bigoted Gay-hating evangalooney-toon member of the American Taliban. First, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a remarkable speech at a United Nations conference commemorating the anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

That same day, the Obama Administration took steps similar to those already taken by the British Government in making how nations treat their LGBT citizens, a factor in considering future foreign aid. (via the huffington post.)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is announcing a wide-ranging effort to use U.S. foreign aid to promote rights for gays and lesbians abroad, including combating attempts by foreign governments to criminalize homosexuality. In a memorandum issued Tuesday, President Barack Obama directed U.S. agencies working abroad, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to use foreign aid to assist gays and lesbians who are facing human rights violations.

The President also ordered U.S. agencies to protect vulnerable gay and lesbian refugees and asylum seekers. "The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Obama said in a statement.

Add to that, the fact the most rabidly gay sex obsessed homophobe running for the GOP nomination just can't seem to get any love from GOP voters. Rick Santorum, may as well be Ron Paul for all the attention he is getting these days.

So channelling that frustration, Santorum beats his "gays are destroying our nation" drum louder, harder and faster in hopes that the Tea-baggers of Iowa will finally notice him. (hat tip to thinkprogress.org) Rick Santorum told a crowd in Spencer, Iowa this afternoon that equal rights for gays and lesbians would “destabilize the family” and “accomodate a different values structure.” “It’s about what America’s basic moral values should be that would be reflected in the law,”

If that wasn't enough, just last week Marine Gen. James F. Amos, the man who was for a time, the face of opposition in the military to lifting the ban on gays serving openly, acknowledgedhis concerns were unfounded. In fact, he says, Marines have embraced the change. He said that at the annual ball in Washington this month celebrating the birth of the Marine Corps, a female Marine approached Amos' wife, Bonnie, and introduced herself and her lesbian partner. "Bonnie just looked at them and said, `Happy birthday ball. This is great. Nice to meet you,'" Amos said. "That is happening throughout the Marine Corps." In an Associated Press interview, Amos called the repeal in September "a non-event."

Having all this in the space of less than a week was just too much for the American Taliban, and their collective heads pretty much exploded. Matt Barber, the oh-so butch, spokes-bigot for the Right Wing hate group the "Liberty Council" attacked Clinton and President Obama for having an “obsession with the radical homosexual activist agenda.”

Over at the Family Research Council, (another group certified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a Hate Group, just like the Klu Klux Klan) they didn't even wait for Hillary Clinton to finish her speech before they started sputtering with incoherent rage. FRC "Senior Fellow" Peter Sprigg (aka "Porno Pete" due to the extensive 'research' he likes to do in sex clubs and at fetish events, about the dangers of Gay Porn,) spewed: "It is startling that President Obama is prepared to throw the full weight and reputation of the United States behind the promotion overseas of the radical ideology of the sexual revolution."

Sprigg's boss and everybody's favourite white supremacist and faux Christian , Tony Perkins couldn't contain himself, and had to had his oddly effeminate voice to the chorus of rage on the wing nut right, saying that Obama is hostile and disdainful toward Christianity, and that Christians who voted for Obama should repent, saying; “Any Christian that voted for Obama in 2008 should be repenting [and voting differently] in the next election," Perkins told the Christian Post. "This administration has been the most hostile toward religious freedom.” Apparently, according to Perkins, if you say torturing and killing gay people is a bad thing, you are infringing on his religious freedom.

Not one to be left out of a good hate fest, Texas Governor and political rodeo clown, Rick Perry chimed in saying, "Just when you thought Barack Obama couldn't get any more out of touch with America's values. ... This administration's war on traditional American values must stop."

SO just to be clear, Rick Perry feels upholding the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a war on American Values. You know, it worked out so well the last time The Republicans nominated a Texas Governor with a 4th grade vocabulary and a penchant for confusing the voices in his head, with God, I can see why the GOP might be considering giving it another go.

Wow! I am so glad Rick Perry cleared THAT up for all of us! It's not unemployment, climate change, a broken financial sector that bilked the country out of trillions. No! The real problem facing America is that Gay Soldiers hate Christmas!! Why didn't I see it before!

And of course... last but certainly never least. We have everybody's favorite hate mongering dementia patient soiling his adult diaper over all things Gay. Predicting that his personal angry God will SMITE Barack Obama and the rest of us godless liberals for daring to , actually follow the example of Christ, and do that whole work for justice stuff. According to Pat, God really hates that!

What the past couple days have made clear is what the American right wing nutters plan to do in 2012. The GOP can't run on their economic plan, because that is what drove the economy off the cliff in the first place. They can't run as the Party that "fights the war on terror" since they completely failed in more than seven years, to get Osama Bin Laden, but the Obama Administration got him in three. They cant run against Obamacare, because there is no such thing, and they cant run against Nancy Pelosi because she isn't Speaker of the House any more. So what's left to motivate their small minded, fearful, angry base to get out and vote?

Oh yeah... The Gays!!

All kidding aside, these people are insane. But the great irony here is still the baffling twister-esque contortions on the issue of Marriage Equality by President Obama. He has his Secretary of State stand up before the world and say loudly and clearly that "Gay rights are Human Rights". He issues executive orders saying loudly and clearly that nations that persecute their LGBT citizens will lose out on American aid.

He says DOMA is unconstitutional , won't defend it in court, even refrains for enforcing it in a select few cases. YET when asked to support the right of all Americans to marry he cowers behind nonsensical babble of supporting equal rights, but marriage is only between a man and woman. Then says his position is still "evolving". Does the President actually think that by refusing to support marriage equality, there are people who will vote for him who otherwise wouldn't?

When the best the other side can come up with is Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney, it's not like the guy has that much to lose by standing up for a core Democratic constituency.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

The old song goes; “There’s no place like home for the holidays...” For many Americans living overseas, that means getting on planes and trekking across the globe to spend the holidays back in the good ‘old U.S. of A. Nothing could be finer, right?

Well in theory, yes. This year, Eric and I will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to spend Christmas, New Years, and my Parents 50th wedding anniversary with my family. THAT part of the trip, actually “being home” for the holidays is fine. We both are really looking forward to time with family and friends back in the United States. That’s not the problem.

It’s the “going “ there that is the issue. Not the travel itself. British Airways will get us from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare non-stop with their usual decent service, moderately edible food, and passable in-flight movie options.

Then after a 2 hour layover, American Eagle airlines will take us the final 40 minute or so hop from Chicago to Madison with little effort. No, the problem is what happens during the lay over between these two flights.

As a married couple, one would think the process of entering the United States would be simple. Right? After all, for the vast majority of bi-national married couples, (couples where one spouse is an American citizen and the other is not...) entering the United States is a pretty straight forward exercise. As long as you have all the right spousal visas etc. The non-citizen spouse should have little or no delay joining you on the other side of the little booths over at baggage claim. Guess again.

For bi-national married couples who happen to be of the same gender, Immigration and Passport control at any major American airport, is for lack of a better metaphor, something of acrap shoot, all depending on the mood of the homeland security passport control agent you encounter.

For both Eric and I this is the most stressful part of the entire trip. To such a extent, that were it not also my parent’s golden wedding anniversary, we probably would have opted not to come at all.

Because of the ridiculously mis-named “Defence of Marriage Act” (or DOMA) , the Federal Government is barred from recognizing Eric as my Spouse, despite the fact that we are legally married in the United Kingdom. So the Department of Homeland Security must treat Eric not as part of my family, but instead as just some non-American guy who is travelling with me.

So after an 8 hour transatlantic flight, we will stagger into the international arrivals hall and then (thanks to DOMA) have to split up into different lines to get through passport control. Eric who has a valid multiple entry tourist visa, will go the non-US Citizen line, while I go through the line for Americans and US Permanent Residents .

Eric will get to the little booth and hand his landing card and passport to the Agent. Now, let me explain why both of us tend to get very stressed at this point. Eric is a Malaysian Citizen permanently living in the UK. He isn’t British, but is travelling from Britain, his passport is Malaysian (an Islamic country) but he isn't Malay or Muslim. He is Chinese, and Buddhist. His landing card says he is visiting the United States to see his in-laws in Wisconsin. But he isn’t in the US Citizen / Permanent Resident line with his “spouse”. All of this, often will mystify and confuse the US border agent.

Eric will then be subjected to a barrage of more than slightly aggressive questions. Such as "So who is it you are travelling with, what is your relationship with this person, and where are they now?" All in spite of having a VALID multiple entry tourist visa. He will patiently answer all the questions (usually three or more times). At this point, the TSA Border agent's brain completely fails to grasp the concept of two men travelling together as married couple. As a result , Eric is “pulled aside” for additional screening that has at times, lasted more than four hours, where he is asked the exact same questions all over again.

All because the U.S. Federal Government (which happily taxes me to support the Dept. of Homeland Security,) can’t treat us the way the British Government, treats us, as a married couple. Thanks to DOMA

In the past it has gotten so ridiculous that once I stood outside the international arrivals gate at the San Francisco Airport, loudly threatening to call all my members of congress and every single media outlet in Northern California if they didn’t let Eric through NOW! (Thankfully at that point, they did...) Mind you that was in San Francisco, a city where the concept of a same-sex couple travelling together was hardly unusual. This trip it will be Chicago O’Hare that will once more, put our faith in the Department of Homeland Security to the test.

How would you feel if; 1) In order to even be with, let alone marry the person you love, you had to move overseas. Then; 2) every time you wanted to visit your family, it was entirely possible that based on nothing more than a border agent’s mood, (not for any logical reason, evidence or probable cause), your husband or wife could be detained for hours, or even barred from entering the country.

All for no other reason, than the basic legal protections other married couples enjoy, we are denied, because the Republican Party needs to keep Gay and Lesbian Americans as the one group they can still legally hate, and discriminate against.

Welcome to our world, Happy Holidays. To our friends and family back in the States, we are looking forward to (hopefully) seeing you soon.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Writing this week in The Washington Post, conservative heavyweight George Will, examines the now two-horse race for the GOP Presidential nomination between former Massachusetts Governor, Willard, "Mitt" Romney, and former House Speaker, and Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich.

In the piece, Will characterizes the reversal in political fortunes of the two as a move from "bad to worse". In fairness, George Will is not what you could call an unbiased observer. His own wife is an advisor to rival GOP Presidential candidate, Texas Governor Rick Perry.

When the topic of Newt Gingrich comes up with his fellow talking heads, on ABC's, "This Week", George Will tends to make it clear, he doesn't take Gingrich even remotely seriously.

As far as Mitt Romney goes, in his piece in the Washington Post, Will compares an Obama-Romney match up to Harry Truman going up against Thomas Dewey. Hardly a metaphor for Republican success. So who does George Will think the GOP should pick to go up against President Obama next November? Former U.S. Ambassador to China, and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman.

Huntsman's positions of being in favor of civil unions for same sex couples, believing in climate change and evolution, mean he is the one candidate in the current GOP field who is not either, woefully opportunistic in their policy track record, or completely insane.

Thankfully for Democrats it also means he is the one man who the Republican Party will never, ever, not in a million years, pick as their nominee. For the simple reason, the nutjob theocrats who now control the GOP would never allow it.

Why not? Simple. It's the same reason they are now willing to overlook Newt Gingrich's three marriages and track record of serial adultery. Huntsman, like Romney is a Mormon and that just gives the Evangelical nutjobs of the GOP the willies.

The fact that the opinion of George Will, one of the American Conservative Movement's most prominent minds is being completely ignored, is a fascinating glimpse into the Republican Party of 2011. Their lockstep allegiance to an American Taliban-esqe conservative social agenda at all costs, will all but hand a second term to Barack Obama on silver platter.

It will be interesting to see what will happen when the Republican Party, which went completely insane when they lost to Barack Obama the first time, faces the reality that his re-election was far more their own doing, than a result of anything the Democrats did.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

This is the latest ad for Marriage Equality from GetUp Australia. Like so many Americans I have scratch my head in wonderment at how simple and yet powerfully effective this Ad is. All the while lamenting the fact that back in the US, the HRC and their assorted ilk have yet to come out with anything even half as good as this...

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Blogging tends to be something of a self-indulgent pastime. You pour your thoughts, ideas, opinions, pet peeves, hopes and dreams out onto a keyboard and post them on the internet with the hope that they are read and understood. Yet with some topics there comes a point where there is nothing more you can say.

With the 2012 Republican Presidential primary process, we have reached such a point.

For the most part I have not posted much about the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates. Mostly because I kept expecting the somewhat crowded, and nonsensical herd of lunatics to eventually thin out, leaving two or at the most three, semi-rational contenders for the GOP nomination.

Yet less than three months out from the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary, the most amazing thing so far about the 2012 GOP race has been the complete lack of sanity, rationality or even reality. There have now been 11 GOP "Presidential Debates" each one less rational than the one before it. Culminating with last night's "Family Values Debate" in Iowa. Hosted by the American Family Association. A group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has officially classified as a Hate Group.

I have posted in the past about AFA and what bunch of hate-filled nutters they are. It boils down to this; They are the American Taliban. They want to take their extremist religious beliefs and codify them into Civil Law. All the while shrieking hysterically about the (non-existent) threat of Islamic Sharia law taking over America. I won't waste time or blog space re-hashing the limitless examples of how insane these people are. If you are really that curious you can see for yourself, by clicking here.

The "debate" was not carried on any of the American television networks. This event was so, ugly, so far removed from reality that even FOX News didn't broadcast it. So when your "Presidential Candidates Debate" is too nutty for even FOX, congratulations; - the Shark has officially been jumped. So much so, that the two Republican hopefuls who most need to win the approval of "social conservatives", didn't even bother to show up. Former front runner Mitt Romney, and current "is he still running?" candidate John Huntsman, both Mormons, knew that their own religious beliefs would be as big a target as abortion and Gay Rights.

Knowing that there was no way they would get out of there with their political lives, they wisely opted out. Which then prompted this twitter hissy-fit response from the AFA's spokes-bigot. (hat tip to joemygod)

So last night, six of the eight GOP hopefuls strove to show the AFA and its assorted minions just how uber-socially conservative each of the them was. Struggling at times to show just how much more they hated Gays and Women's rights to control their own bodies, and loved Jesus, than their opponents.

The best moment, came when a question was asked, about a possible U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. (DOMA), the Federal Law that bans recognition for Same Sex Marriage. Former Godfather's Pizza CEO and alleged serial sexual harasser Herman Cain just couldn't resist showing his complete ignorance of the U.S. Constitution.

Did you get that? According to Herman Cain, and Newt (thrice married serial adulterer) Gingrich, the President of the United States can just "overturn" Supreme Court rulings he doesn't like. Well, that's nifty.

The result of all this may well be the death of political blogging until after the 2012 GOP National Convention. Why? Simple, there is nothing left to say. There are only so many ways to express gob-smacked incredulity. Eventually the English language exhausts itself trying to express shock and dismay at people so completely detached from reality, devoid of sanity, and ignorant of basic American principles.

People who truly believe that those who ran our economy into the ground for the benefit of a select view, are to be admired, and people who created prosperity and opportunity for all are "socialists out to destroy America".

The level of delusion on the American Right Wing, is beyond belief. It is no longer Political, it is pathological.

To anyone who would even be considering voting for any of these people. I have only one question. Why do you hate America?

CBS, Google, Levi's, Starbucks, New Balance, and Xerox are among the 70 companies and cities that have signed an amicus brief stating that DOMA, the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, hurts business. --NCRM.com

Woe to you, oh modern card-carrying homophobe. For it can't be easy to be you right now, what with all the terrifying changes taking place, all the dramatic sexual upheavals and flagrant displays of "unnatural" love being hurled like exotic sushi in your plain hamburger face these days. Oh, you poor dear.

I see you there, glumly sipping your Starbucks gingerbread latte while Googling Swedish fetish porn in between checking the latest news on NASCAR.com in your lightly stained Dockers and beat-up Nikes, Cartoon Network blaring in the background, tattered copy of Shooters Monthly on the bedside.

I see you there, mumbling angrily at how New York has had legal gay marriage for four whole months and so far, no hellfire, chaos, no petrified Christian children melting into goo in the streets. I see you horrified at how seven other states and 10 countries are thriving happily with gay marriage, God apparently not really giving the slightest damn about how anyone expresses their consensual, reverential, wholehearted love, so long as they just do.

To be fair, I suppose it's too soon to tell if the end of DADT means our valiant U.S. military, during our next war, will end up offering the enemy a giant cupcake disco meth party, instead of kicking ass and keeping those pinko commie terrorists from poisoning the beer supply and stealing your HBO.

Did I say HBO? What a shame you have to give that up, no? Same goes for all those other brands, shows, shoes and companies I mentioned above, given how they all openly disrespect you and everything you stand for. Or haven't you heard?

Behold, dear homophobe, the upwards of 70 major U.S. companies who have just signed an amicus brief -- basically a formal f-you complaint to the federal government and its odious Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- saying the damn thing is bad for business, forces discrimination and inequality in company practices, was written by/for angry encephalitic right-wing thugs who don't know their God from a hole in the seminary wall. I might be making up that last part. But only barely.

Which companies are protesting DOMA, you ask? Starbucks. Google. Microsoft. Levi's. Nike. Time Warner Cable. Aetna. New Balance. Xerox. The list is impressive indeed, especially given how it's more or less an addendum to a much longer list, one that includes all the other enormous U.S. companies who already openly support gay rights, like Apple and Disney and Pixar, like Hershey and Coca-Cola and Dell, American Express and Mattel and even big media daddies like Time Warner, Inc. and Viacom. Et al.

Are you not furious, righteous Republican homophobe? I bet you are. I bet you're dialing your angriest, most confused buds right this moment to write letters, post barely punctuated rants to the hate forums on Free Republic, call in to Rush to demand a Tea Party-wide boycott of every single one of these sicko companies.

I mean, you can't really call yourself a true American, a real Christian and still openly wear Nikes or Levi's, use Microsoft or Google, or watch Warner Brothers movies, can you? If you really walk your anti-gay talk, well, every one of these companies should be banned from your life, right?

It shouldn't be too bad. Easy enough to kick that Starbucks addiction to the curb. Damn them to hell with their Norah Jones and their mediocre espresso, anyway. Same goes for those hippie perverts over at HBO. Can grudgingly live without Air Jordans or New Balance tennies, too.

But oh, cutting out Google might be a little trickier, as that means the end of Gmail, Gmaps, Google Earth, Google Plus, YouTube (!), you name it (I'd suggest switching to Yahoo, but alas, they love those icky gays too. Maybe Bing? Oh wait, Microsoft. Uh-oh. Is Lycos still around?)

But hey, you can make do, right? Screw those depraved, godless companies. Who needs 'em? At least you have Fox News. And Exxon. And, um, Pilgrim's Pride. They make deep-fried frozen chicken blobs. So you're good for basic protein. Suck down a giant platter of breaded, hormone-injected patriotism while sipping a silver bullet and watching some NASCAR, and all is right with the world, am I right?

Oh dear. Bad news, lovebug. It seems Time Warner owns the broadcast rights to every single NASCAR race nationwide. Time Warner! Dude! They love gays! As if that weren't bad enough, they also own NASCAR.com. WTF?

Would you like to read that again? A clearly pro-gay megacorp basically owns the straightest, manliest, most pseudo-macho sport in the entire known world next to beating things with clubs and skinning buffalo with your teeth. Whatever will you do with your boycott now?

Before you answer, might want to check out what else you're going to do without. Time Warner, for one, is everywhere.

Did I forget to mention CBS? That's right. No more "CSI." No more "Survivor." Damn homos are everywhere.

It's OK, take a moment. I can hear your head imploding in abject confusion. How could this be? How could these powerhouse companies be sucked into the vile gay agenda that's destroying the land, brainwashing our kids and making it OK to order arugula salads and enjoy trance music and the BMW 3-Series?

Don't worry, homophobic American. No one really expects you to boycott all these companies, or even any of them. No one expects you to actually walk your hateful talk. It's not really possible anyway.

Besides, the backwards lug in you and the jaded cynic in me could easily argue that most of these companies couldn't care less about gay rights, per se. They only really care about the money DOMA costs them. They care about health care expenses, administrative overhead, profit and loss. They only care about, you know, capitalism. And everyone knows, capitalism doesn't discriminate. It's an equal opportunity exploiter.

But unfortunately for you, I'm not sure that really matters anymore. Be it for economic, moral, political or cultural reasons -- or more likely, some wondrous combination thereof -- gay rights and gay marriage are gaining on you. Fast. I know it, you know it, even capitalism itself knows it. Your imminent obsolescence is assured.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Saturday, October 22, 2011

I came across this Video on Facebook today. It is a mass "lip dub" done by the students Sun Prairie Senior High School in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. The American High School that I graduated from in 198... something or other... Watching this video I was struck by some amazing differences and changes that have taken place there over the past quarter century.

The first and most noticeable the new School building, which makes the old hallowed halls look like something out of bad 80's after school special. But even more striking is the the diversity of the Student population. When I attended SPHS there were three students of color , that's it. SPHS today makes a Benetton ad look monochrome.

Then there is the just the fact that so many students came together to make this. I will confess, I don't think I could ever imagine my own classmates coming together to do anything even remotely similar. Well, maybe, but highly doubtful.. It seems that times do change, and change for better.

Friday, October 07, 2011

Wednesday October 7th, 1998 was a fairly ordinary day in Chicago. I was working for a small consulting firm in the near West suburb of Oak Park, and had spent the day in a series of fairly productive meetings. So I felt pretty good when I got home from work. I was puttering around my apartment making dinner when I picked up the remote control for the TV and turned on CNN. The lead story was a brutal attack of a young man in Laramie Wyoming named Matthew Shepard. Shepard, age 21, had been beaten into a coma and left tied to fence along a rural highway outside the city. The news report noted that the victim was a young gay man and was not expected to survive.

I remember walking down into “boystown” (the north Halstead area of Chicago, and the center of the city’s Gay community). There were lots of people standing around outside the bars, and restaurants along Halsted Street, talking about what had happened in Wyoming. A makeshift memorial had been set up on the corner of Halsted and Roscoe.

I walked into the 7-11 there on the corner and bought a small votive candle, lit it and placed it with the growing number of candles, handwritten notes and flowers that were being placed around a picture of Matthew that someone had printed off the internet. I stayed for a little while talking to people who were gathered there. Some people were angry, others sad, but we all knew that something in our own community had changed as a result of what had happened, hundreds of miles away in field outside Laramie.

In 1998 I had just moved to Chicago after being overseas in South Korea. I was in the middle of my own “coming out” process, and was gathering up my courage to have “the talk” with my parents when I went home for Thanksgiving in a few weeks time. I will admit the news of Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder shook me up. Suddenly the decisions I was making to live openly and honestly as who I was, had potentially fatal consequences.

On an intellectual level you always knew that there were “gay bashers” out there. People who were so conflicted about their own sexuality that they felt the way to “cure” themselves was to attack others for what they feared most about themselves. Yet now those hypothetical risks, were not so hypothetical. What's more, those cosequences now had a face, and a name.

As I walked home, my thoughts turned to Matthew Shepard’s parents. What must they be thinking and feeling? Had they known Matt was gay? Did it really matter? Years later I would have the great honor of meeting Judy Shepard, and hear her tell her own powerful story .

Thirteen years later, I marvel at how my own life has changed. I am married to an amazing man, we have incredible friends and loving families who remind us every day, that the world is not as bleak and dark a place as it seemed, on that October night in 1998.

Yet I am still saddened and angry that there are many people in America who honestly feel that Matthew Shepard got what “he had coming to him”. That demonizing , discriminating against, and even murdering Gays and Lesbians is somehow “doing God’s work”.

People with a vested interest in keeping LGBT people as the one group it is still safe to hate. People who seek to profit, personally, politically and even economically from fomenting deadly hatred and fear of others. Bigots whose actions and beliefs are the farthest thing from being Christian, yet claim to have a monopoly on what they claim God thinks and who they claim "God hates".

I really don’t have a point to make here, other than to say it’s important to remember Matthew and so many others like him who have died as a result of hatred and bigotry. If you want to get involved, here are a few great places to start...

Friday, September 23, 2011

Last night was one more of the seemingly endless Republican "Presidential Candidate Debates". A sad pathetic effort to make people think that the 2012 election campaign is somehow in full swing in September of 2011.

I didn't watch the latest American Taliban bitch-fest. For one, I would have had to stay up until 4 am here in London to catch it live. For another it was on FOX News, and if given the choice of undergoing a combination root canal - colostomy or watching Fox News? Pass the Novocaine.

So I missed what was the defining moment for the modern Republican Party. It was the moment where all the slogans, all the speeches, all the remaining trappings of any resemblance to a legitimate political party seeking to offer an alternative electoral choice to the American People, finally fell away. Revealing for the entire world what is left; Rancid, ugly hate filled hypocrisy.

The modern day Republican Party, which has made it's living off of claiming to "support the troops" more than anyone else, showed the world just what a warped twisted lie all that patriotic posturing really is.

From The HillSome members of the GOP debate audience booed a gay soldier who asked via video whether the Republican candidates would reinstitute the recently repealed "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of banning openly gay soldiers.

After Stephen Hill, who is serving in the Army in Iraq, asked his question, a handful of members of the audience booed loudly. None of the Republican candidates responded to the audience's reaction. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) answered that "Any type of sexual activity has no place in the military" and that he would return to the policy of requiring gays and lesbians to stay silent on their sexuality or get thrown out of the military. His response garnered loud applause.

Here it is...

I have said it before. The Republican Party of 2011 has nothing that they can ask the American People to vote FOR. Their policies are designed to direct all resources and opportunity to only the top one tenth of one percent of Americans. Anyone who doesn't fall into that category of the uber-wealthy is in the mind of the GOP, insignificant and disposable.

Dying as result of poverty is to the GOP, a natural cause. Anything government does to help anyone outside that one tenth of one percent, is "Socialism!!", and President Obama is some Indonesian-Kenyan-Marxist-Leninist-Islamic Manchurian Candidate, planted in Hawaii decades ago as part of some long term plot to destroy America.

All that doesn't really play well on a bumper sticker. So the GOP knows their only hope is to give America something to vote AGAINST. To do that you need voters to be two things, angry and afraid. So the plan for 2012 is simple, get Americans angry at the scary Black man in the White House, and get them afraid of....?

Well, let's see. The GOP can't campaign against Women, Blacks and Jews anymore, (at least not openly, Pat Buchanan apparently didn't get that memo.) Telling Americans they need to hate Hispanics has turned out to be a losing electoral strategy thanks to America's shifting demographics, and the "Islamo-facist" boogie man lost it's punch when it became clear most of the post 9-11 terror alerts were based far more on George W. Bush's poll numbers, than any actual intelligence. So who's left?

Oh yeah... The Gays. When the GOP is too crazy for life long Republicans like Senator Alan Simpson, you know the Republican Party has jumped the shark.

In 2011, the Republican faithful will jeer and boo at an American soldier, serving his country and risking his life in a war zone because it fits the narrative of who their party has told them they should fear and hate.

This is not about "Don't Ask Don't Tell", or even about what the assorted Republican candidates think about LGBT rights. It is about living up to words they spout so freely, professing their admiration and support for those brave men and women who risk their lives serving our nation in the military.

We now know what all those bold "we support the troops more than you...", words were... A lie.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Jamey Rodemeyer needed help. At 14, he was grappling with adolescent demons that could torment grown men. And when he was online, he wrote about it.

"I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," he wrote Sept. 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?"

Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide.In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age. On Sept. 8, he wrote: "No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you're the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down."

He put up a separate post that day letting everyone know it was National Suicide Prevention Week. On Saturday night, he posted a lyric from Lady Gaga's song "The Queen" on his Facebook page: "Don't forget me when I come crying to heaven's door."

Then around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Jamey posted two final messages to his main public Tumblr blog. One said he really wanted to see his great-grandmother, who had recently died, and one offered thanks to Lady Gaga.

That was his last entry.

Jamey did have bad days. Issues of bullying and even suicide talk were not new to many of Jamey's family or friends. They were common topics for him and seemed to ramp up to an extreme level when other students started making taunts with gay references to Jamey about 12 months ago on his Formspring account, which permits anonymous posts.

"JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" read one post.

Another read: "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!"------------------------------------------------Earlier this year Jamie had created and posted a video for Dan Savage's "It Gets Better Project"

It's hard to know exactly what to say when something this horrible this preventable happens. What is clear is Jamey's school and teachers failed him. Failed him with fatal consequences. I could write for pages and pages about how so many self-proclaimed "Family Values Conservatives" have Jamey's blood on their hands today.

I could go on and on about how the dehumanizing rhetoric of hate groups like "Focus on the Family" and the "American Family Association" directly contributed to this young man's tragic death. I could write for days on end about how the quest by hate mongers and bigots like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum to prevent anti bullying programs in our schools is killing our kids....

But no amount of words on a screen or a page will bring this remarkable young man back, it won't bring back any of the lives that have been lost to hate . So I will simply say, those who hounded this young man and others like him to their deaths, are the farthest thing from Christian. They are evil itself, and I have no doubt that they will rot and burn in hell. With all their hate which they are so sure will buy their way into heaven, they will instead, find themselves standing before God, who will look away and say: "I do not know you ..."

The streets of heaven are too crowded with Angels tonight. I am sorry Jamey. America failed you . Rest in peace.

Left Behind - from "Spring Awakening"

You fold his hands and smooth his tie, you gently lift his chin.Were you really so blind, and unkind to him?Can't help the itch to touch, to kiss, to hold him once again.Now to close his eyes--never open them....A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearningFor the fool it called a home.All things he never did are left behind.All the things his mama wished he'd bear in mind,And all his dad had hoped he'd know.The talks you never had, the saturdays you never spent.All the 'grown-up' places you never went.And all of the crying you wouldn't understand.You just let him cry, 'make a man out of him.'A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearningFor a fool it called a home.All things he ever wished are left behind.All the things his mama did to make him mind,And how his dad had hoped he'd grow.All things he ever lived are left behind.All the fears that ever flickered through his mind.All the sadness that he'd come to own.A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearningFor the fool it called a home.And it whistles through the ghosts still left behind.It whistles through the ghosts still left behind.Whistles through the ghosts still left behind.